1999 Bowl Championship Series Rankings

Nov. 22: Florida State in First Place

by Gerry Brown

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The Bowl Championship series rankings, new and improved for 1999, are back in the news. It was most recently released on Mon, Nov. 22, and Florida State (11-0) was locked into first place, guaranteeing the Seminoles a trip to the national championship game at the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 4.

The Seminoles' competition is still to be decided. Virginia Tech (10-0) is currently the number 2 team in the rankings, but Nebraska (9-1) is closing fast and could possibly leap-frog the Hokies with wins in their final regular season game against Colorado this Friday and against Texas in the Big 12 Championship Game on Dec. 4. Texas beat the Cornhuskers, 24-20, earlier this year.

It's possible that the Hokies could beat Boston College (8-2) on Friday to finish the regular season undefeated and still get shut out of the national championship game. We won't know for sure until the final BCS standings are released on Dec. 5. In spite of their loss, Nebraska could jump past Virginia Tech is their strength of schedule. Nebraska will be rooting for Oklahoma State to upset Oklahoma and for Texas to beat Texas A&M. While Virginia Tech, who played I-AA James Madison this year, will be rooting for the Dukes to go deep into the playoffs.

The BCS rankings are calculated from a broader base of computer polls and rankings than in its inaugural year in 1998 in an effort to improve the fairness of the list. On Dec. 5, we'll see if it worked.

TEAM

AP

ESPN

AVG.

BILL.

DUNK

MASS.

NYT

ROTH.

SAG.

S.H.

S.T.

C.AVG.

S.SCHED

S.RANK

L

TOTAL

1.FSU

1

1

1.0

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1.00

6

0.32

0

2.32

2.Va.Tech

2

2

2.0

2

3

2

2

2

2

2

5

2.14

66

2.64

0

6.78

3.Nebraska

3

3

3.0

3

1

3

4

3

3

3

2

2.57

21

0.84

1

7.41

4.Tenn.

6

7

6.5

10

7

4

5

5

5

4

6

5.14

6

0.24

2

13.88

5.Fla.

5

6

5.5

6

11

7

10

4

6

6

7

6.57

12

0.48

2

14.55

6.Kan.St.

9

8

8.5

4

5

5

8.5

6

4

5

4

4.71

59

2.36

1

16.57

7.Wisconsin

4

4

4.0

8

4

6

11

9

7

11

13

8.00

70

2.80

2

16.80

8.Ala.

8

9

8.5

7

9

8

3

7

10

7

3

6.29

1

0.04

2

16.63

9. Texas

7

5

6.0

9

8

13

7

13

13

12

10

10.00

29

1.16

2

19.16

10.Michigan

10

10

10.0

11

10

10

8.5

8

6

8

9

8.64

2

0.08

2

20.72

11.Mich. St.

11

11

11.0

5

8

11

12

10

9

9

9

8.71

9

0.36

2

22.07

12.Penn St.

15

15

15.0

12

12

12

21

12

11

10

11

11.43

7

0.28

3

29.71

13.Marshall

12

12

12.0

33

31

9

13

11

12

21

15

16.00

99

3.98

0

31.96

14.Minn.

13

14

13.5

14

16

18

20

15

18

15

22

16.57

44

1.76

3

34.83

15.So.Miss.

14

13

13.5

22

13

14

30

17

16

24

26

18.86

42

1.68

3

37.04

Legend

Poll Average — The average of the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and AP media polls. Others receiving votes are calculated in order received.

Computer Average — Average of Richard Billingsley, Dunkel Index, Kenneth Massey, New York Times, David Rothman, Jeff Sagarin's USA Today, Matthews/Scripps-Howard and The Anderson & Hester/Seattle Times rankings. The computer component will be determined by averaging the seven highest computer rankings. The lowest computer rankings will be disregarded.

Schedule Rank — Rank of schedule strength compared to other Division I-A teams divided by 25. This component is calculated by determining the cumulative won/loss records of the team's opponent (66.6 percent) and the cumulative won/loss records of the team's opponents opponents (33.3 percent).